History of Animation

Traditional Animation
Traditional animation (also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation) is the that most of us born in the 20th century would know and recognize. This style of animation is drawn by hand and every image that follows has a slight difference to it to give it the appearance of movement. In traditional animation there are subcategories of animation.  
Full animation is what you would see with The Lion King (1994) and The Secret of NIMH (1982).
Limited animation is what you would see in 1968's Yellow Submarine. There were a lot of animators involved in the making of the movie, for a full list follow this link and scroll down to Animation Department.

                                                                                                                                                            
Yellow Submarine Trailer

Rotoscoping is what you would see if you have ever watched Bakshi's Lord of the Rings (1978) or 1981's Heavy Metal. Here is a link to the animator's that were involved in making Heavy Metal, again scroll down to Animation Department.

                                     

Heavy Metal Trailer

Live-action/Animation this style of traditional animation is what you would see in the movies Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Space Jam (1996).

Stop-Motion Animation
Stop-motion animation is where you physically move a real world object the desired amount at a frame by frame rate of speed to give it the appearance of motion. Like traditional animation there are subcategories for stop-motion animation as well. The following are a few examples.
Puppet animation is what you see when you watch The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) or Robot Chicken (2005- Present).
Clay animation is what you've seen if you have ever watched The Gumby Show (1956–1968) or the movie Chicken Run (2000).
Cutout animation was seen in Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974) and the pilot episode of South Park (1997– Present).



Monty Python's Flying Circus Opening Credits

Monty Python's Flying Circus ran from 1969–1974 with Terry Gilliam as there animator and
Bob Blagden as their graphic designer.
Model animation was used in Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and King Kong (1933).
Pixilation was the stop-motion animation style seen in The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (1993) and Angry Kid (1999-Present).

Computer Animation
Computer animation is the creation of animated objects or characters using computers. Like the other forms of animation there are also sub-categories for computer animation. Here are a few examples.
2D animation is used a lot in flash and powerpoint animations.
3D animation is what we see when we watch Futurama (1999-2013) or play a game like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002).
Motion capture is the style we see when we watch Polar Express (2004) or Beuwolf (2007).
Polar Express 
Polar Express's Animation Department can be found at this link. Animation Department.
Photo-realistic animation can be seen in the movies Ice Age (2002) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010).
How to Train Your Dragon's animators can be found at the following link about 1/2 way down the page. Animation Department

I tried placing in more videos but apparently Blogger will not allow more than three so I just supplied the links instead.